The KHI Team

 Dr. Anna Villalobos, MD, co-founder of Korima Health Initiative, is a Colorado native with roots in Chihuahua, Mexico. She was raised in Ciudad Juárez and grew up closely connected to the Rarámuri community through her grandmother. After completing medical school at the Universidad Autónoma de Guadalajara, she worked as a surgical assistant in Colorado while pursuing her U.S. credentials, later completing her family medicine residency in Lynchburg, Virginia.

There, she joined Dr. George Wortley on medical missions to Copper Canyon, where she continues to serve. Inspired by years of hands-on work in rural communities, Dr. Villalobos co-founded Korima Health Initiative to bring sustainable, compassionate healthcare to the Rarámuri people of Guacayvo and surrounding villages.

Dr. Chris Martinez, MD, co-founder of Korima Health Initiative, is an avid lover of the outdoors and spends much of his free time developing trails, building campgrounds, and completing first ascents on the rock structures of the western United States.   Dr. Martinez was a US Air Force physician with experience in large clinical settings and remote, austere medicine. He finished his military career as the Medical Director of Luke AFB's 56th MDG Family Practice. His enthusiasm for adventure and wild places led him to work for the United States Antarctic Program for many years after concluding his military service. Over his many deployments to the ice, he served as the lead physician at all three U.S. Antarctic bases. 

Pulling from his broad and pertinent experience in clinic logistics and austere medicine, Dr. Martinez is now dedicated to bringing high quality medical care to the Rarámuri people. 

Jen Henry, co-founder of Korima Health Initiative, lives in the Appalachian Mountains of Southern Pennsylvania. She earned her BS in Physics and her MS in Materials Science and Engineering but shifted early in her career to be a stay-at-home mom to her two awesome kiddoes. As her kids grew, she developed a wide palette for alternative careers and has become a successful trail race director, a farm laborer on an organic vegetable farm, a wildland firefighter, a Pennsylvania Master Naturalist, and is now a certified EMT. 

Jen first traveled to the Copper Canyon with Dr. George Wortley in 2016 and fell in love with the Rarámuri people and the spirit of Korima that pervades the wilds of the canyon. Dedicated to obtaining a deeper understanding of and respect for Rarámuri culture,  Jen is looking forward to the fruits Korima Health Initiative will surely bring over the coming decades to the beautiful Rarámuri people of Guacayvo.

Shari, co-founder of Korima Health Initiative, is a Registered Respiratory Therapist and WEMT. She has brought her expertise, her big heart, and her willingness to assist anywhere and with anything  to the Rarámuri people of the canyon for many years. She considers this work to be beyond rewarding having learned deep lessons in resilience and tenacity from all the people in the Copper Canyon. 

Through Korima Health Initiative, she will continue the mission with our group of skilled, compassionate doctors, nurses, and EMTs.

George has been a Family Physician for 45 years.  In 1998 he made his first trip to the Rarámuri in the Copper Canyon.  Since then he has been back once or twice most years.  Over the decades he has been accompanied by other adventurous people he has recruited from his role as a medical educator, adventure racer, ultra-distance runner, and Antarctic physician at the South Pole.   He is very happy to see the next generation of medical professionals organize the Korima Health Initiative to continue assisting the Rarámuri.